1972’s Ultraman Ace would bring a wave of new changes to the series upon its debut. Influenced by other tokusatsu shows at the time such as Kamen Rider, Ultraman Ace would drive the series into the territory of full-on superhero fantasy, bringing new concepts such as two hosts for the title character, and feature for the first time in Ultra, an overarching main villain responsible for the monsters seen here. The monsters themselves, known as Chojuh, or Terrible Monsters, are all synthetic creations, said to be much more powerful than the previous kaiju seen, and often times, are much stranger compared to the monsters from the last four shows.
YAPOOL
The main villains of the show, the Yapool are a race of interdimensional invaders who seek to conquer Earth. Using their advanced technology, they’re behind the creation of the Chojuh by combining regular Earth animals, and space beasts. In addition, the Yapool employ several alien agents in their schemes, and manipulate humans to help them spread fear and chaos.
For the first ever main villains in all of Ultra, I think Yapool ain’t too bad. Making them invaders from another dimension is a good way to raise the stakes for the show. In addition, I really like how the Yapool are shot, with the creepy filters, and distortion that really make them come across as truly unnatural, and even demonic in nature. They are invaders in the truest sense of the word.
The conception behind such iconic villains had an interesting development. Wanting to ride the wave created by Kamen Rider a year prior, the original choices for the main villains were quite different than the final product. In the Ultra Fighter pitch, the main villain was the mad scientist Dr. Takenaka, who hated human society and created monsters to wreak havoc. The Ultra V pitch featured aliens from the planet Satan combining Earth and space creatures to create powerful kaiju. With the latter concept, you can see the elements of the finalized idea taking shape. I also like to believe that Tsuburaya cribbed a healthy bit of inspiration from the Invaders from their 1971 tokusatsu series Mirrorman for inspiration as well in making Yapool seem otherworldly.
While the final version of the Yapool would be portrayed by actors in black, hooded suits, the original concept by Akihiko Iguchi featured a lionfish derived design. Looking at the concept art, it makes me wonder if they’d go with puppets to portray them, which if that is the case, it’s not surprising if that concept was dropped due to the elaborate and expensive special effects such a design would bring. Still, I think the final version of the Yapool is just as effective and terrifying, and makes for a great set of villains.
Yapool would go on to become one of the show’s biggest reoccurring villains, with numerous different incarnations and forms, but we’ll cover those soon enough.
VELOKRON
The first of Yapool’s many Chojuh, Velokron attacks Japan with it’s armament of missiles. The creature proves itself to be more than a match for the Earth Defense Forces’s fighter squadron, and is responsible for killing off Hokuto and Minami, which forces Ultraman Ace to fuse with them. The creature soon attacks Fukuyama, only to meet its end at the hands of Ace.
Velokron is a strong monster to start the show off on, and rightfully one of the most iconic creatures from this show. It’s a nice design that happens to feel both simplistic, and exotic. As you could probably guess, I really like the red growths around his body, which make for a neat design. Iguchi was said to have based this monster’s design off of the idea that the Yapool combined coral and a space monster into one organism, and I think he did a great job conceptualizing it. Another thing that isn’t apparent at a first glance, is that Velokron is basically a living missile launcher, and is basically entirely mechanical on the inside. It’s not much, but it really helps convey the idea that Velokron is more than just a simple monster, this is a Terrible Monster we’re talking about!
Velokron would become one of the most popular foes from Ace, and would go on to appear in many of the Heisei entries, starting with Ultraman Mebius as one of Yapool’s go-to minions.
CHAMELEKING
Born from two strange eggs fusing with each other, Chameleking was responsible for the sinking of Atlantis during ancient times. Recreated in the modern age by Yapool, Chameleking’s eggs cause havoc in Tokyo, absorbing humans, before fusing together to fight Ultraman Ace.
Chameleking doesn’t look as surreal as many of the monsters in Ace, but the episode itself plays with some utterly bizarre concepts that help cement Chameleking as one of Ultra’s weirder creatures. Having the monster be born from an egg isn’t anything original, but having it be two eggs that fuse together and are capable of flying and absorbing humans through their shells is something truly surreal. In addition, the implication that Yapool sent Chameleking to destroy Atlantis raises some interesting questions too, like, how long has Yapool been waging war on the human race? Are they responsible for other ancient civilizations vanishing too? Why only stop at Atlantis? It adds some nice mystery to the world of the show, as well as showing us that Yapool is more than capable of wiping out an entire civilization.
Design wise, I think Chameleking is alright. He’s certainly one of the more plain looking chojuh, but I feel that adds to his charm, and I really enjoy the chameleon derived head, and the row of spikes going down his body brings to mind Gigan.
VAKISHIM
YEAH! Here we go! We’ve hit my favorite Ace monster, and just one of my favorite monsters in general-Vakishim!
Emerging by shattering the sky, Vakishim quickly destroys a passenger plane. Minami, who is patrolling the area, is unable to attack because she spots a boy nearby.
Investigating the area later, TAC finds the boy, Shiro, living with his grandparents. It soon becomes apparent however, that things aren’t as they seem, as Shiro is in reality, the disguised Vakishim, who takes the lives of grandparents, and soon heads to TAC HQ to destroy it when TAC themselves were away. After Ace vanquishes Vakishim, it’s discovered that Shiro had died in a car accident with his parents three days ago..
Man, what a wonderful monster in all aspects! The story here is wonderfully creepy, and just goes to show how just bizarre and messed up many of Yapool’s creations can get in this show. It has that nice, creepy dream logic that Ultra Q has in spades, and the idea of a monster either disguising itself or hiding inside the body of a dead child is a really disturbing premise. Plus, he makes his entrance by literally shattering the sky! How cool is that?!
In terms of design, I think Vakishim is a winner in all aspects. Everything about this guy is cool; The blue and orange color scheme makes for a nice looking monster, and the features such as the angular head, tail and crest, the “rivets” along the sides, and the bellows on his body give Vakishim a synthetic feel in terms of looks. Iguchi designed him, and reportedly went off of the concept of a fanged caterpillar monster for him. Lastly, when you watch the episode and see him next to Ace, you see just how massive this suit is in comparison to any previous monster costume, it has a very demanding presence to it, Vakishim is a big deal. The suit was apparently so large, that the costume had to be cut up and then reassembled outside since it was too big to get through the workshop’s door.
The original design of Vakishim was much more bird-like with a red body covered in bellows similar to Red King and webbed hands and feet. While I find the first concept strong enough to work as a monster, I love the Vakishim we got far too much, and can’t imagine him any other way.
Vakishim would rightly go on to become one of the most well-recognized monsters from Ace, and starting from his reappearance in Ultraman Mebius, would go on to become one of Yapool’s signature monsters throughout many of the shows that would follow.
GARAN
While Garan here doesn’t look as outlandish as many of the kaiju that have preceded him, the story behind the monster is one of the strangest and darkest in all of Ultra.
Garan was a prehistoric fish from the Devonian era changed into a chojuh by Yapool. After being changed into a monster, Garan wasn’t guided by Yapool themselves, but rather an Earthly agent…
Garan is placed in the control of a maladjusted manga artist named Mushitaro Kuri. Kuri uses his artistic abilities to control the monster by drawing what actions he wants it to take, as well as erasing it if Garan needs to retreat. Kuri uses the monster in tandem with his scheme to force TAC’s Mikawa into marrying him. It’s one of the darker human stories in an Ultraman show (especially when we see what happened to the last woman who rejected Kuri), and it’s immensely satisfying to see Ace take them both down.
The story of Garan and the banal human evil it’s connected to is a great concept, and perfectly illustrates just how devilish the Yapool are by utilizing the dark thoughts of one man to their advantage. Throughout Ultraman Ace, we’ll see the darker aspects of humankind manipulated by Yapool in their conquest of Earth, and I find Kuri here to be perhaps the apex of these sort of schemes. Even thinking about the episode now feels slimy, and actor Koji Shimizu does a fantastic job in portraying such a depraved character.
On the subject of Garan’s design, I think it’s easily one of the best monsters from the show, and emblematic of just how cool the chojuh can get. I’m a big fan of that large, pointed snout and the red spikes going along the front of his body. He looks like he means business without being overdesigned. Garan was apparently a design submitted by a dental technician from Osaka, but was redrawn by Akihiko Iguchi.
While Garan and his master would never appear again in any subsequent media, Shimizu does return some 34 years later as Yapool’s human guise in 2006’s Ultraman Mebius, in what I feel is a nice, subtle callback. It sort of makes one wonder that the humans who give themselves to Yapool’s control have their identities stolen and used as guises by the invaders.
ARIBUNTA AND GIRON MAN
An ant chojuh, Aribunta feeds on Type O blood, Aribunta drags people down into the depths of the Earth in order to feed on them, leading to some grisly scenes of Aribunta dragging subway cars underground and melting people with his formic acid.
Ace travels underground to battle the monster, only to fall into the trap of the Giron Man, the alien agent of Yapool. Things look bad for Ace as Giron Man and Aribunta move on to destroy the city, but aid arrives in the form of Zoffy, which brings us to a colossal tag team match, the first ever team-up battle in the franchise.
Aribunta is another winner in my eyes, being a well realized ant monster with a ton of flair to him, making him stand out among the already colorful crowd of monsters in this series. I especially love Aribunta’s color scheme and spikes, making him come across as an imposing and deadly monster. Aribunta was designed by Kengo Kime who was on the art staff for Return of Ultraman, and had incorporated design elements such as the prehistoric archaeopteryx after producer Ken Kumagi suggested it to him. The claws Aribunta has were based on the ones used by various crustaceans, and the large spikes on the shoulders were done in order to give the monster some extra flair. Lastly, the name Aribunta comes from the real life marabunta, or more commonly known as the army ant.
Giron Man himself isn’t a bad design either, and he’s a good introduction to the concept of the various alien agents Yapool uses in the series. Plus, I dig those checkerboard shoulders that were supposedly made from a bathmat.
Aribunta was thought to be just another one-shot monster, but as of 2015’s Ultra Fight Victory, he’s gotten a considerable number of roles in the various New Generation series and seems to have become one of the go-to chojuh alongside classics such as Velokron and Vakishim.
BROCKEN
A chojuh born from mixing a space monster and a regular crocodile, Brocken possess the body of the astronaut Koyama, arousing the suspicion of Koyama’s son Atsushi, who quickly discovers that dear old dad has changed since his space trip.
As you can tell, Brocken is from the same school of pantomime horse monster as Dodongo was from the original show, only executed here much more effectively this time around, giving us a great, imposing monster. I’m especially fond of Brocken’s mouth-hands, as well as the large whips from the back of his body. In addition, I do have to commend Iguchi’s design work here in making a monster that looks like its inspiration without being too on the nose. Lastly, unlike many chojuh, we get to see just how exactly Brocken is created, which sheds some more like on just how strange and advanced the Yapool’s science is.
We don’t get a good look at the space monster that is used as a component as Brocken in the episode, but it did get it’s own piece of concept art. I like the look of the beast, as it feels very much like a sea slug!
Koyama was played by Akiji Kobayashi, the same actor who played Capt. Muramatsu of the SSP in the original Ultraman as well as Tobei Tachibana in the first five Kamen Rider shows. It’s always great to see Kobayashi in an Ultra show again, and seeing him play the part of a monster of the week is really fun.
Before we move on, there’s a great, suspenseful scene in this episode where Atsushi finds out his dad’s controlled by Brocken by the horrifying face growing out of his hand. Seeing as how Hideaki Anno took a great amount of Neon Genesis Evangelion‘s iconography and elements from the Showa era Ultraman shows he watched as a child, it’s clear to see the inspiration of the Angel Adam being fused with Gendo’s hand coming from this moment in Brocken’s episode
METRON JR. AND DORAGORY
Episodes 7 and 8 of Ultraman Ace, Monster vs. Chojuh vs. Alien and Life of the Sun, Life of Ace, are by far some of the most nail-biting episodes of the show. In it, the planet Goran threatens to crash into Earth, and it’s a race against the clock by TAC in order to construct a rocket that can be fired into Goran to destroy it. However, Yapool has decided to meddle, sending down Metron Jr. and the chojuh Doragory to sabotage the operation. All sorts of crazy plot twists occur such as Metron Jr. infiltrating the TAC base, Minami weakening after battling as Ace, and even Muruchi from Return of Ultraman showing up during the battle.
Metron Jr. here, isn’t as good looking as the original Metron, but otherwise, I don’t find him too shabby looking at all. The head not being as colorful, along with the larger eyes and mouth on the front does give off the impression of this individual being a younger version of his species. Reportedly, some secondary sources claim that Metron Jr. is the son of the Metron we see in Ultraseven, but it’s something that doesn’t come up in the episode. Still, I really like the idea of the Yapool joining forces with the vengeful offspring of a previous foe, and it just shows how the Yapool are more than eager to join forces with those that have grudges against the Ultras.
His partner in crime, Doragory, is probably one of the most infamous monsters featured in all of Ace. This ghoulish beast has the infamous reputation of being one of the franchise’s most bloodthirsty creatures, ripping apart poor Muruchi in a graphic fashion, and even killing Ultraman Ace! He’s definitely a monster that has more than earned his reputation.
In terms of design, I quite like Doragory. Inspired by a moth, I like they lightly use his insect inspiration with the eyespots lower on his body, as opposed to making him just a big insect. However, my favorite feature of this guy has to be his face. Those black, soulless eyes, and fanged, grinning mouth make him an intimidating foe, and you know just from a glance that this guy enjoys what he does.
Doragory would live on to become one of the main recurring chojuh from this series. One notable appearance of Doragory’s would be his return in the Yapool arc of Ultraman Mebius, which features a hilarious scene where monster nerd Teppei freaks out when Doragory reaches for Mebius’s face, echoing the infamous scene from Ace where Doragory rips Muruchi’s jaw off. As for Metron Jr., he hasn’t made any comebacks at all, but there’s a nod to him in Ultra Galaxy Mega Monster Battle: NEO where a Metron Reionyx controls and summons Doragory.
GAMMAS
While Gammas looks quite odd in terms of appearance, akin to a bizarre-owl creature. The creature is supposedly a synthesis of a space monster and an orchid flower (!), but truly looks like a “nonsense” monster with the odd “wings” on its back, bloodshot eyes, and frills and fur dotting its body. But while Gammas looks comical, the monster has a unique power that makes it truly deadly.
You see, if Gammas has its picture taken, the creature will actually travel onto the negative itself. Yapool’s plan here revolves around the monster’s photo being taken and being copied, with the final stage of the plan having an army of the monsters emerging from the photograph to attack mankind. While the show obviously never gets to that scenario, the idea of a monster that can replicate itself to easily and innocuously is a frightening and clever idea, and sets Gammas apart from many other monsters in this show, or elsewhere.
Gammas was designed by art director Yoshio Suzuki, who had worked on many tokusatsu productions ranging from Mighty Jack to the original Godzilla. It’s said Gammas was the first monster he designed for Ace, but Suzuki himself claims he doesn’t remember which one he designed first since he worked on so many creature designs for the show. While the monster is said to be spawned from an orchid flower, the design motif was supposedly a frog.
The suit of Gammas would go on to appear in Tsuburaya’s Fireman as the monster Rodoguros, who is massacred alongside Gudon and Fireman kaiju Stegorus.
ANTIRA AND ZAIGON
Antira here, is the agent in what might be one of the pettiest Yapool schemes we’ve seen in the series yet. Arriving with the monster Zaigon, Antira disguises himself as Hideki Goh, the protagonist from the previous year’s Return of Ultraman, and the host of Ultraman Jack. The disguised Antira intends on destroying TAC after they take him in. It’s only thanks to Jiro Sakata that the plan is unraveled.
In terms of design, I find Antira to be pretty alright. We don’t see much of him undisguised, but he looks pretty good. I like the silver-red coloration, and the large, sucker-like mouth gives him a parasitic vibe, fitting for such an evil plan. Antira was based off of the prehistoric Cambrian worm Anomalocaris.
Jiro Dan does a good job playing fake Goh, and it’s always a treat to see him interact with the cast of Return again. The “evil Goh” we see when Antira’s cover is blown is pretty comical though.
Antira’s monster pal, Zaigon, isn’t as flashy in appearance, or have weird powers, but seeing how he’s not the main focus of the story, I think that’s fine. A rhino derived chojuh, Zaigon’s more conventional anatomy and color scheme makes him ironically stand out in a sea of weirder beasts, though he’s far from the most iconic of the Ace kaiju.
UNITANG
After the more underwhelming Zaigon, the show throws at us a monster that is truly bizarre in every sense of the word. Unitang here is a monster sent by Yapool to attack TAC’s radar bases. However, the weirdness comes into play with what the monster is disguised as…
You see, the monster disguises itself as a group of 10 women who are cyclists! It’s a very odd choice for a disguise, but it’s definitely the kind of thing Ace as a show does compared to other entries in the franchise.
When it’s time to turn back into Unitang, the team of cyclists form a human pyramid while riding their bikes which then transforms into Unitang. The picture I included here doesn’t even compare to seeing it happen in front of your eyes, and it’s a moment that made me burst into laughter at just how insane it gets the first time I saw it (and hell, every time after)
Unitang herself was designed by Yoshio Suzuki, who took inspiration for the design from spiders. And yes, those rows on Unitang are her breasts.
SABOTENDAR
Sabotendar is actually a monster I have a lot of fondness towards, ever since I first saw the guy in action as a newbie Ultraman fan waaaaaay back in early 2013.
A combination of a hedgehog and cactus, Sabotendar escapes his first bout with Ace by transforming himself into a small cactus and hides among other cacti being sold by a father and son. While incognito, the monster regains it’s strength by preying on other living things such as insects and chickens before engaging in one last bout with Ace where he then meets his end.
While not the weirdest of the bunch, I love Sabotendar a whole lot, and would say he’s among my favorite chojuh just based on his appearance alone. I’ve found cactus inspired tokusatsu monsters to be always really cool looking, and Sabotendar here is the best of them all in my opinion. I love the spikes running along the body, the green-yellow-red color scheme, and the hideous, lamprey-like mouth most of all. All these elements come together to form a really well done monster.
Sabotendar was once again designed by Yoshio Suzuki, who has said this was one of his favorite designs for the show, something I’m more than inclined to agree with. Sabotendar’s suit would be remodeled into Mazarius’s costume later in the series, and Sabotendar himself would reappear alongside Bemstar, Yapool, and Velokron in Ultraman Taro. Sadly, poor Sabotendar hasn’t made any other appearances in the franchise since then, a real shame, since he’s one of my favorites.
Easter's Kaiju Kompendium 